Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Brother Monkey’s expression was like an open book. Yan Hongyu choked. He felt angry, amused, and shocked all at the same time. Did this child develop a mutation?
‘Other than Gongyu Hao, does no one else in the Yan family have the talent to learn martial arts? Oh right, I also have talent in martial arts.’ Yan Hongyu thought.
After Yan Hongyu entered the city, he learned some martial arts from a guard of the family that he used to work for. He was born with great strength and had some talent in martial arts. However, he had only started learning martial arts at thirteen, just shy of the prime age to learn martial arts. Although he was considered good at martial arts among ordinary people, he could not compare to real martial artists.
He was just another regular martial artist roaming the streets at this current ability. Although his skills were only for protection, he only relied on his intelligence when he worked at the dock.
Yan Hongyu was speechless for a moment. He then organized his thoughts and said, “You are only twelve years old. No matter how strong you might think you are, do not go wandering into the mountains by yourself. The mountain behind our village stretches for more than three hundred miles. Who knows what is in the deep reaches of the mountains. Some animals are more powerful than tigers.
“Alright, I shall return home to get some silver. You can bring the silver home to your mother. I still have more than fifty taels of silver with me. It should be enough to hold you guys over until your father comes back.
“As for silver to build a new house, I will figure something out later. Perhaps, I could borrow some silver from the people around me. Anyway, your father is an Imperial Scholar, and he might become an official by spring. Don’t worry about repaying me. Oh right, has your father written to you yet?”
Yan Hongyu had feelings of regret dwelling in his heart. He wouldn’t have bought a house if he had known about the fire earlier. Otherwise, he would have been able to give them more than fifty taels of silver.
Brother Monkey replied, “We have yet to hear from our father. However, he has been gone for a whole month now. I would expect a letter from him anytime soon.
“As for the silver, Fifth Granduncle, you don’t need to worry about us. I have already sold my prey and earned more than a hundred taels of silver. Yan Lingsu had also found a lot of high-quality medical herbs. Today’s medical herbs were sold for more than ten taels of silver.
“The shopkeeper of pharmacy said that the quality of the medicinal herbs that we sold was top-notch. He also told us that if we found more, we should sell it to him and he would give us the best price in town. Those weren’t even the most precious herbs that Yan Lingsu had found.
“Yan Lingsu had also found hundred-year-old ginseng and a bowl-sized Ganoderma mushroom. They would be sold for a higher price once cleaned and processed. So, we are doing well in terms of silver.”
Since the Yan family did not have to worry about silver, Yan Hongyu refrained from mentioning the matter of silver again. At this moment, the thought of it made him worried. “Is your mother and Yan Lingyu okay?”
“They’re fine. Thankfully they weren’t hurt during the fire. They were a little scared, and they only choked on some smoke.”
‘Everyone was so scared that we started to remember everything that had happened in our past lives. But that isn’t something that I can reveal to you.’ Gongyu Hao thought to himself.
Passing by the dim sum shop, Yan Hongyu had the demeanor of an old uncle. He ran in and bought eight pieces of dim sum for Yan Qixun. “We’re thirty miles away from town. You must have eaten very early in the morning, and you must be hungry by now. Here, let’s have some dim sum for now. We can go to a restaurant later. I will make you some of your favorite dishes later.”
In fact, she was not hungry at all. She still had the scallion pancake and boiled eggs that her mother prepared earlier. However, Yan Qixun became curious about the taste of the dim sum that her fifth granduncle had bought, so she took a piece of a tri-colored dim sum that looked like a glutinous rice cake from the future and tasted it. It tasted sweet and delicious. It was soft, glutinous, and fresh.
When she followed her fifth granduncle into the dim sum shop, she took a good look around. She heard from her fifth granduncle that this was the best dim sum shop in Linjiang City. There were eight types of dim sum, and they cost one coin each. It had cost Yan Hongyu two taels of silver.
Yan Qixun felt that with her achievements in western-style desserts, she would be able to open up a dim sum shop in the city, and she knew that it would be successful.
Although traditional Chinese dim sum was delicious, the western dim sum was also very popular in taste. Western-style dim sum was able to dominate half of China’s dessert stores in the future, and it was not only because the Chinese people were fascinated with foreign foods in the earlier years.
They passed through the City Office Avenue at the corner of the city, entered the Southeast District, circled the avenue, and passed the public schools. After walking for about half an hour, they finally arrived at Silent Alley, Yan Yonglou’s house. There were many private schools in this area besides the city schools. Yan Yonglou was a teacher in a medium-sized school.
Because of the public schools and private schools, most people living here were scholars, so it was tranquil. The security was much better than the security in the Southwest and Northwest districts.
Silent Alley was close to the public schools, so the house’s value was slightly higher. Second Granduncle had withdrawn his family’s life savings back then, and with Yan Yonglou’s income as a teacher, he had barely bought a small courtyard a few years back.
Three main houses surrounded the courtyard, and there were also three side rooms for the east and west ends of the courtyard. There were so many rooms, so the courtyard was pitifully small. When Yan Yonglou’s family first bought the house, the Yan family had come over to hold a housewarming party for them.
As Yan Qixun remembered, the empty space in the small courtyard was estimated to be about thirty square meters, but there was a rare well there. Because of that, this land cost an extra forty taels of silver compared to the other houses in Silent Alley.
The four of them finally arrived at Yan Yonglou’s front door. Because the yard was small, they had to tie the donkey to a small tree outside the door.
Brother Monkey walked up and proceeded to knock on the door. Fifth Aunt Qin asked, “Who is it?”
Aunt Qin was puzzled. She was a woman. So, no one would be looking for her. Even if it were her neighbors, most of the women would meet in the morning when they were going to the market. However, it was almost noon. During this hour, her husband and her eldest son would be in school. If people familiar with Yan Yonglou and his son were to look for them, they wouldn’t be home.
Yan Qixun then answered from the outside, “It’s me, Fifth Aunt.”
Hearing the little girl’s sweet voice, Aunt Qin immediately recognized that it was her little niece, Yan Qixun.
Aunt Qin proceeded to open the door. When she confirmed that they were family members, she quickly approached them and entered the courtyard. “What brings you all over? Did something happen at home?”
Yan Qixun smiled and said, “Everything is fine. Second Brother and Uncle Lu came to town to sell the prey they had caught. Mother also asked us to send you and Fifth Uncle some of our prey to keep. We ran into Fifth Granduncle on the way here, so we traveled together.”
While Brother Monkey and Uncle Lu were unpacking the cart, the Qin family bowed to Yan Hongyu. “Greetings, Fifth Granduncle. It has been a long time since we last saw you. How have you been?”
Yan Hongyu laughed heartily. “I’m doing great. I was so busy with my own business that I didn’t have the time to come and visit. I have been busy dealing with all sorts of people. It would be bad for your family’s reputation if I came here too often.”
The members of the Qin family immediately said, “What are you talking about? You are an elder in the family. As your juniors, we should be dutiful to you.”
After they invited Yan Hongyu into the central room, they were about to make some tea when they saw what Brother Monkey and Uncle Lu had in their hands. They knew that it was deer leg, badger meat, and tiger meat. They were surprised. “Even three to five taels of silver won’t be enough to pay for this meat. Your mother is too generous. We can’t accept any more than this in the future..”